Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Hypocrisy amd Smoking

The Blog | Marshall Herskovitz: Smoking and R-Ratings | The Huffington Post

"...It kills hundreds of thousands of people a year. Young people shouldn't smoke, and seeing smoking in films probably influences millions of them to start. No argument.

The problem is that excess drinking is a terrible thing and also kills millions of people a year. And influences young people. Driving automobiles irresponsibly is a truly terrible thing and kills tens of thousands of people a year and influences young people. Guns are terrible things. Sexual harassment is a terrible thing. Robbery is a terrible thing. War is a terrible thing. Being mean to other children is a terrible thing.

The world is filled with terrible things that can influence children, and movies have depicted them since time immemorial. Should every terrible thing warrant an R-rating?..."

I'll go you one better. Since obesity is killing us all, shouldn't all commercials selling food be banned from the airwaves? (That would put teeveeland into double-overtime electroshock.) Should movie scenes featuring food automatically have R-ratings? How about titles that glorify food, like my My Dinner With Andre, be forced into retitling?

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